Draft of bill to merge Flint-Genesee County district courts would require local approvals

GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- A draft bill that would clear the way to merge district courts in Flint and the rest of the county would require approvals by both the county Board of Commissioners and Flint emergency manager Michael Brown before it could take effect.

A draft copy of the legislation obtained by The Flint Journal includes the dual approval language, organizes cities and townships into separate divisions within the proposed consolidated district court, and allows for -- but doesn't require -- the commissioners to establish the city of Flint as the location of a central mega-court.

Richard Yuille

A representative of the State Court Administrator's Office, which has coordinated development of the proposed legislation, did not comment on the draft bill.

Judge Richard Yuille, chief judge of all courts in the county, said the consolidation draft is no longer the most up-to-date proposal that's been discussed.

Yuille said he would wait for the introduction of a bill in the state Legislature before commenting on any drafts under consideration.

"I think there is something that's going to be introduced rather soon," said Yuille, who has been involved in talks with the SCAO as the bill has been developed.

The effort to merge Flint and Genesee district courts into a single operation and open the door to closing satellite courts in Burton, Davison, Fenton, Flushing, Grand Blanc and Mt. Morris is being developed because of the city of Flint's shrinking population and its dwindling caseload, the agency has said.

Discussions became more serious after a 2011 report concluded Flint District Court has too many judges -- five -- each of whom
earn annual salaries alone of $138,272.

The number of judges in the court has remained the same even though case filings dropped by 51.3 percent from 2003 to 2010, and Brown said today that the Flint court system has become a burden on taxpayers.

In the most recent fiscal year, the loss from Flint District Court was more than $4 million, said Brown, who said a merger of the court systems is worth pursuing.

"We're definitely looking at it," Brown said. "It's an area we should at least be talking about ... ."

Brown said the key to any consolidated court system will be finding a way for the county to absorb Flint District Court without sinking under its deficits.

Curtis said he's optimistic about the potential for a single district court system for the county but said that can't happen until Flint courts are "right-sized" and are not a collective burden on taxpayers.

Although Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill to reduce the
number of Flint District Court judges to four through attrition, the change might not happen for nearly a decade.

Other considerations in any consolidation, according to Curtis: a lack of parking near the current central district court in downtown Flint and county's potential loss of rent from its primary tenant there -- Flint District Court.

Curtis said he's not inclined to close satellite courts even if a new bill allows for, but doesn't require it.

Commissioners have already started hearing objections to any plan to close satellite courts, and Curtis said today that he wouldn't support "cutting and slicing and eliminating services that don't need to be."